Ben Martin, Va Assn of REALTORS

"But sometimes I think we are at least partially to blame for the culture of disrespect within which we sometimes find ourselves operating. As agents, we don't always treat each other much better." Interesting take. It seems the pressure is even manifesting itself in the REBC/RE.net. I've noticed a lot more nasty comments recently.

The major difference is that IdealRoute computes the optimal route without your having to guess on what it might be. No dragging and dropping. That should save you a few mouse strokes. Also, the process of adding addresses through IdealRoute is simpler than adding addresses into Google Maps, IMHO. You have to keep scrolling down to add a new destination in Google Maps. Scott, you're right, you can't change the order of the destinations. IdealRoute computes the shortest route between multiple properties, it doesn't take into account other factors like: 1) This home is only open between 12-2, or 2) I'd like to take my clients to that nice restaurant after the third showing, etc.

There's another side to this. I'm no economist, but most of the metrics used to rank the economists had nothing to do with the housing market. Still, I'm inclined to agree with you that the bubble heads are just noisily pounding sand. The Virginia Association of REALTORS arranged for a bunch of Virginia based REALTOR-bloggers to meet with Lawrence Yun on March 28. If you leave your question in the form of a comment at VARbuzz.com, our bloggers will pass along questions posed to Dr. Yun.